Human hair becomes soiled due to its contact with the surrounding environment and from the sebum secreted by the scalp. The soiling of hair causes it to have a dirty feel and an unattractive appearance. The soiling of the hair necessitates shampooing with frequent regularity.
Shampooing cleans the hair by removing excess soil and sebum. However, shampooing can leave the hair in a wet, tangled, and generally unmanageable state. Once the hair dries, it is often left in a dry, rough, lusterless, or frizzy condition due to removal of the hair's natural oils and other natural conditioning and moisturizing components. The hair can further be left with increased levels of static upon drying, which can interfere with combing and result in a condition commonly referred to as “fly-away hair.”
A variety of approaches have been developed to alleviate these after-shampoo problems. These approaches range from post-shampoo application of hair conditioners such as leave-on and rinse-off products, to hair conditioning shampoos which attempt to both cleanse and condition the hair from a single product.
In order to provide hair conditioning benefits in a cleansing shampoo base, a wide variety of conditioning actives have been proposed. However, many of these actives have the disadvantage of leaving the hair feeling soiled or coated and of interfering with the cleansing efficacy of the shampoo.
Coacervate formation in a shampoo composition is known to be advantageous for providing conditioning benefits to the hair. The use of cationic polymers to form coacervates are known in the art, such as in PCT publications WO93/08787 and WO95/01152. However, these shampoo compositions are good for delivering wet hair conditioning but are not capable of delivering satisfactory dry hair smooth feel.
Based on the foregoing, there is a need for a conditioning shampoo which can provide improved conditioning benefit for dry hair, while not interfering with the cleansing efficacy, nor providing negative feel to the hair when it is dried. Specifically, there is a need to provide long lasting moisturized feel, smooth feel, and manageability control to the hair when the hair is dried, yet not leave the hair feeling greasy, as well as to provide softness and ease of combing when the hair is wet.
None of the existing art provides all of the advantages and benefits of the present invention.